Congratulations. I've built a few small sites as demo's so I'd have at least very basic experience. No kidding about the WP rabbit hole. I can get pulled in just analyzing traffic.
Maybe just a little too fascinating.

Ownership is the way but If you're curious, there is a decentralized "answer to" Patreon on blockstack if you didn't come across this: bitpatron.co (https://) . New alternatives have major downsides & limitations of their own of course but I like what they've done. It's encouraging.